BBMP limits expand by 4 sq km as govt adds five villages

The area under the BBMP’s jurisdiction has now increased by four square kilometres with the addition of five villages in northern and southern Bengaluru.

The state government has notified the addition of two villages to Hemmigepura (Ward 198) and three more villages to a ward in North Bengaluru, even as MLAs’ proposal to annex peripheral villages to the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) met with stiff resistance from bureaucrats heading the delimitation committee.

With the additions, BBMP limits that sprawl over 712 sq km will now stretch over 716 sq km. The villages were added in March 2021 and notified in the gazette, months before the BBMP delimitation committee held its first meeting.

As per the state government’s notification, a copy of which DH accessed, a few survey numbers of Mallasandra and Uttarahalli Manavarthekaval villages under the Kaggalipura Gram Panchayat in Bengaluru South taluk have been added to the Hemmigepura ward.

Similarly, Lakshmipura village, Kanshiram Nagar and all the layouts within the Lakshmipura village in Bengaluru North taluk have been added to another ward.

The Urban Development Department had been considering adding these villages to BBMP limits for several years, a senior official said. The newly added villages would be assigned to various wards based on their demographic features during ward delimitation to accommodate 243 wards.

“Residents have been petitioning for adding these villages to the BBMP for years. Based on public demand, they’ve been added to BBMP limits by following the due procedure under the Karnataka Municipal Corporation (KMC) Act and the newly enacted BBMP Act,” the official said, pointing out that the decision was based on a number of factors.

Another official revealed intense pressure to both accept and reject proposals to add new areas. MLAs from Mahadevapura, Yelahanka, Yeshwantpur and Bengaluru South had submitted proposals listing out villages to be included in the BBMP limits to the delimitation committee set up by the state government. The committee’s tenure was recently extended to deliberate on the proposals.

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